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...a blog by Richard Flowers

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Day 2497: Boring Statistical Point

Friday:


I am getting a bit BORED of the commentary (copyright all newspapers) that "half of all the new jobs created since 1997 have been taken by foreign workers".

It is JUST AS LIKELY that two million new jobs have been created and ENTIRELY taken by British workers… leaving one million LOWER-PAID jobs vacant, which have drawn in workers from Europe to do the jobs that British workers are no longer willing to do.

I am not saying that that HAS happened – it's just no more unlikely than the other EXTREME, the one that everyone is quoting as gospel.

Of course, the Labour didn't create ALL these jobs, either. They just created the public-sector ones by spending money like it was going out of fashion. And this week's latest banking crisis suggests they may have been RIGHT! The Conservatories are just miffed that the Labour is better than they were at creating the CONDITIONS in which other people can create jobs too.


It is the MIX of jobs that is important. If MOST people have moved UP into a better job – British people into better British jobs; European workers move into better-paid jobs in Britain – then surely that is an all round WIN. WE are better off; THEY are better off; the GOVERNMENT gets more tax; the vital jobs still get done… where is the DOWNSIDE?

(Oh yes, it's the new DOG-WHISTLE that the Right have discovered: pressure on housing. Of course, it would also help if they were calling on all those big building corporations that fund the Conservatories so well to build more affordable houses even though that would mean lower profits.)

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